Memoirs of Benjamin Franklin; Written by Himself. [Vol. 2 of 2]
With his Most Interesting Essays, Letters, and Miscellaneous Writings; Familiar, Moral, Political, Economical, and Philosophical, Selected with Care from All His Published Productions, and Comprising Whatever Is Most Entertaining and Valuable to the General Reader

By Benjamin Franklin

Page 47

[3] Truth is brighter than light.

A friend of mine was the other day cheapening some trifles at ashopkeeper's, and after a few words they agreed on a price. At the tyingup of the parcels he had purchased, the mistress of the shop told himthat people were growing very hard, for she actually lost by everythingshe sold. How, then, is it possible, said my friend, that you can keepon your business? Indeed, sir, answered she, I must of necessity shut mydoors, had I not a very great trade. The reason, said my friend (with asneer), is admirable.

There are a great many retailers who falsely imagine that being_historical_ (the modern phrase for lying) is much for their advantage;and some of them have a saying, _that it is a pity lying is a sin, it isso useful in trade_; though if they would examine into the reason why anumber of shopkeepers raise considerable estates, while others who haveset out with better fortunes have become bankrupts, they would find thatthe former made up with truth, diligence, and probity, what they weredeficient of in stock; while the latter have been found guilty ofimposing on such customers as they found had no skill in the quality oftheir goods.

The former character raises a credit which supplies the want of fortune,and their fair dealing brings them customers; whereas none will returnto buy of him by whom he has been once imposed upon. If people in tradewould judge rightly, we might buy blindfolded, and they would save, bothto themselves and customers, the unpleasantness of _haggling_.

Though there are numbers of shopkeepers who scorn the mean vice oflying, and whose word may very safely be relied on, yet there are toomany who will endeavour, and backing their falsities with asseverations,pawn their salvation to raise their prices.

As example works more than precept, and my sole view being the good andinterest of my countrymen, whom I could wish to see without any vice orfolly, I shall offer an example of the veneration bestowed on truth andabhorrence of falsehood among the ancients.

Augustus, triumphing over Mark Antony and Cleopatra, among othercaptives who accompanied them, brought to Rome a priest of about sixtyyears old; the senate being informed that this man had never beendetected in a falsehood, and was believed never to have told a lie, notonly restored him to liberty, but made him a high priest, and caused astatue to be erected to his honour.

Franklin should leave his friends
and the world deprived of so pleasing and profitable a work; a work
which would be useful and entertaining not only to a few, but to
millions? The influence writings under that class have on the minds of
youth is very great, and has nowhere appeared to me so plain, as in our
public friend's journals.

Tho' I seldom attended any public worship, I had still an opinion of
its propriety, and of its utility when rightly conducted, and I
regularly paid my annual subscription for the support of the only
Presbyterian minister or meeting we had in Philadelphia.

Thus, if in the first week I could keep my first line, marked T,
clear of spots, I suppos'd the habit of that virtue so much
strengthen'd and its opposite weaken'd, that I might venture extending
my attention to include the next, and for the following week keep both
lines clear of spots.

David Hume, too, who was
some years after secretary to Lord Hertford, when minister in France,
and afterward to General Conway, when secretary of state, told me he
had seen among the papers in that office, letters from Braddock highly
recommending me.

This
kind of fire, so manag'd, could not discover them, either by its light,
flame, sparks, or even smoke: it appear'd that their number was not
great, and it seems they saw we were too many to be attacked by them
with prospect of advantage.